Caps Overcome B's in Overtime, 4-3

With profound apologies to Charles Dickens, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, and then, it was the best of times again.
Seeking to shake off a rather ordinary month of hockey and attempt to start a modest winning streak, the Capitals roared out of the gates on Wednesday and opened up a quick and early lead over the Boston Bruins at Verizon Center. Washington added to that lead, twice. But the Bruins stormed back in the latter half of the game, tying it up and forcing overtime while the Caps seemed to be playing with their hands tied at their sides

A three-goal Washington lead evaporated, and the Caps went more than 26 minutes without a shot on goal while Boston was scoring the three goals needed to tie the score.

It took Nicklas Backstrom's overtime goal to pull the game from a burning dumpster and deliver it to the win column for Washington, a 4-3 victory.

"We gave [the Bruins] a point," says Caps coach Barry Trotz. "We've got a three-goal lead, you want to hold onto that. We've been very good at that the last couple of years. Hopefully, we learn from that."

They don't ask "how," they ask "how many," and the Caps now own a very humble two-game winning streak, with both triumphs coming in overtime. But this win was accompanied by enough stench that a few of the players came together to conduct a players only postgame meeting, perhaps something in the way of an airing of the grievances.

"I think every time when you let teams back from a 3-0 lead, it's not good enough," says Backstrom. "We want to be a better team, we want to play tight and we want to be able to shut teams down.

"I thought they clearly outplayed us in the second and third periods, and really we were lucky to get two points, to be honest. I think that's on us and that's maybe why we had a little talk."

As is custom in these situations, no one is discussing what was said. Suffice it to say that these guys probably realize they're a better team than the one that's posted a pedestrian 7-5-2 record over the last month, with three of those victories coming in overtime.

Washington wasted little time in taking a 1-0 lead over the Bruins. On the game's first shift, Evgeny Kuznetsov lofted the puck toward the Boston cage just as Justin Williams was cruising past the crease. Using the shaft of his stick, Williams deftly deflected it behind Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask to put the Caps on top just 23 seconds after the opening face-off.

The Caps had a slight edge in territory and possession in the first, and they were also able to add to their lead before the period was halfway over.

Williams, who entered the contest with two goals in 24 games on the season. scored his second goal of the first frame at 7:57. Kuznetsov found some space in the middle of the ice and drove toward the slot. A Boston defender knocked the puck off his stick, but Williams was right there to collect it just above the paint. He quickly whipped a shot through Rask's legs to extend the Washington lead to 2-0.

While Boston was on the power play late in the first, Bruins center Patrice Bergeron plastered Caps defenseman Matt Niskanen into the glass from behind. One of the game's most gentlemanly players, Bergeron was assessed a two-minute minor that halted the Bruins' man advantage. Similar crimes have been - and will be - met with harsher sentences in the NHL, but Bergeron's sterling reputation did him and the B's a favor in this instance.

There was no favor for Niskanen, who departed the game and did not return. The Caps say he was held out for precautionary reasons, and no more is known about his condition at this time. But Niskanen's departure didn't help Washington's downward spiral.

Early in the second, the Caps upped their advantage to 3-0 when Jay Beagle perfectly fed Daniel Winnik on a two-on-one transition rush. Winnik beat Rask at 5:51 to give the Caps their first three-goal lead since they forged a 4-1 lead over the St. Louis Blues in the third period of a game here on Nov. 23. That lead didn't last either; the Caps won that contest 4-3.

Winnik's shot turned out to be the last one the Caps put on Rask in 26 minutes and 27 seconds.

Boston broke the goose egg with 3:25 left in the second period. Dominic Moore won a right dot draw from Kuznetsov in the Washington end. Zdeno Chara took a shot that was blocked in front, and Caps goalie Braden Holtby tried to paddle the puck off to safety, but instead put it right on Anton Blidh's stick. Holtby got a piece of Blidh's shot, but Moore whacked the rebound into a yawning cage to make it a 3-1 game.

With exactly a minute left in the period, Kuznetsov coughed up the puck in neutral ice, enabling dangerous David Pastrnak to break in all alone on Holtby. Pastrnak scored his 16th goal in just 22 games this season to shave the Caps' lead to 3-2.

Washington had just a dozen shot tries in the second. Two were on net, two were blocked and eight - in what has been a recurring theme - missed the mark altogether.

A Tom Wilson hit on Blindh in front of the benches resulted in an interference call on the Washington winger, and also sent Moore and Beagle to the box for coincidental roughing minors.

With Beagle and Wilson in the box and Niskanen gone for the game, the Caps were without their two most frequently deployed penalty killing forwards (in terms of average shorthanded time on ice per game) and without their second most frequently deployed defenseman in shorthanded situations.

The Caps came within two seconds of a clean kill, but Austin Czarnik fed Colin Miller for a one-timer from the high slot, shading toward the left circle, and the blast eluded Holtby. The first power-play goal of Miller's NHL career evened the game at 3-3 with 11:41 left.

After firing six shots on net in the first period, the Caps had two in the second and just four in the third. But they needed just one shot to get it done in overtime.

From the red line, Marcus Johansson spun a backhand pass to Backstrom, who carried into Boston ice. Backstrom worked a give and go with Nate Schmidt, then held and surveyed while Schmidt drove the net at the left post. Backstrom called his own number, and threaded the puck through Rask's five-hole to give Washington two points that looked like they were all but in the bag an hour and a half earlier.

"I was going to go back to Schmitty," says Backstrom, "but the puck was bouncing. And then I saw [Rask] was cheating a little bit. So I tried to shoot it five-hole. He left that open, so it was nice."

Boston's three-game winning streak came to an end, but the B's have collected a point in six straight games (4-0-2).

"We had some major breakdowns there defensively early on," says Bruins coach Claude Julien. "We gave them some crappy goals, let's put it that way. I didn't think we played it right. But we stuck in there and we worked out way back into it.

"I think it was a real good effort by our hockey club tonight. Probably at the end, you think you deserve better, but against a team like that you take the point and you move on because we have a game [Thursday] night."